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Ottawa pledges $50M to help provinces cope with asylum seekers

OTTAWA — The federal government has announced $50 million in funding for Ontario, Quebec and Manitoba to help offset the costs of housing thousands of asylum seekers.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen pledged the money Friday in response to provincial and municipal demands for federal help to cope with a “crisis” that risked overwhelming local resources.

An RCMP officer informs a migrant couple of the location of a legal border station shortly before they illegally crossed from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, in August 2017. The federal government has announced funding for provinces and municipalities that say the flood of migrants to local homeless shelters is overwhelming their facilities. (Charles Krupa / AP FILE PHOTO)

Toronto Mayor John Mayor — who last month had criticized the lack of assistance from Ottawa — said Friday that the funding announcement was a “start toward the federal government meeting its responsibilities to cities.”

Tory noted that the housing refugee claimants will cost Toronto alone $64.5 million by the end of the year, plus an additional $6.3 million to open emergency sites.

Canada’s largest city is struggling to house more than 2,600 refugee claimants in its homeless shelters, making up about 40.8 per cent of the entire system, and is now making arrangements to open up college dormitories.

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“Our city has a long history of welcoming refugees and we continue to support that approach, but we have been clear that Toronto can no longer absorb the cost and impact of the increasing numbers of refugee claimants coming into the country at this time,” Tory said in a statement.

Those claimants are among a growing number of asylum seekers crossing the Canadian border from the United States outside normal border crossings, numbering some 20,593 in 2017.

On Friday, Hussen praised the provinces — and Montreal and Toronto in particular — for their “extraordinary” efforts to assist the refugee claimants.

Hussen acknowledged that the influx of asylum-seekers has increased pressure to provide shelter and social services. He said the “initial” funds are meant to provide immediate assistance for temporary housing. Quebec will receive $36 million, Ontario $11 million and Manitoba $3 million.

That funding is well short of what municipal and provincial leaders were demanding. Quebec, for example, was seeking reimbursement for $146 million in costs. Hussen suggested that more funding could eventually be on the way.

“This is an initial help for immediate needs to meet the requirements for temporary housing shelter capacity this summer,” he said. “It is by no means a final payment. The discussions towards further financial assistance are ongoing.”

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said the funding was only a “Band-Aid” solution and warned that municipal and provincial demands for money will only rise unless Ottawa amends fix a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement to stem the flow of asylum seekers.

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The Canada-U. S. immigration treaty states that an asylum seeker must make their claim with the government of the country in which they first arrive. But the agreement only applies to official border crossings.

“I predict that you're going to see this government having to come out over and over and over again over the next year as municipalities and provinces have to deal with the impact of this strain on our system,” Rempel said.

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